Authorities on Wednesday identified the shooter who opened fire at a Minneapolis church adjacent to a Catholic school as 23-year-old Robin Westman, a transgender woman who legally changed her name from Robert in 2019.
Westman, armed with a rifle and two handguns, fired through the glass windows of the church as students from the school attended a ceremony marking the start of the academic year. Two children, ages 8 and 10, were killed. Fourteen other children and three adults were wounded before Westman turned the gun on herself and died at the scene. Police said it remained unclear whether she fired directly into the congregation inside or only through the windows.
Shooter opens fire at Minneapolis Catholic church
Westman’s mother had worked at the school until 2021. Authorities said Westman had no criminal record and legally purchased the firearms.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the massacre is being investigated as both a domestic terrorism case and a hate crime against Catholics. Investigators are also reviewing a YouTube channel allegedly linked to Westman that featured disturbing videos uploaded just hours before the attack. The content has since been removed.
In the videos, Westman displayed ammunition magazines marked in English and Russian with names of mass killers, including Adam Lanza, who carried out the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, and Anders Breivik, who murdered 77 people in Norway in 2011. Other inscriptions read “Israel must fall,” “6 million wasn’t enough,” and “Jew Gas,” scrawled on a smoke grenade. One magazine bore the words “Kill Donald Trump.” Another message read: “Where is your God?”
In one clip, Westman sketched the Catholic school’s church on a notebook page, then stabbed the drawing repeatedly, saying, “I’m going to kill myself.” In another, she read aloud a letter laced with antisemitic slurs and threats to murder “filthy Zionist Jews.”
Police are examining a handwritten farewell note Westman read aloud in one video, in which she claimed she believed she was dying of cancer from smoking. “I think I’m dying of cancer, it’s a tragic end,” she wrote. “Because of my depression, anger and twisted mind, I want to commit one last act that has been running through my head for years.” She signed it: “Robin M. Westman, 2002–2025.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz lamented that children just starting the school year “were met with evil and horror and death.” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said authorities were searching a vehicle in the parking lot, believed to be the shooter’s and three associated residences in the area. They were also scouring content that Westman allegedly scheduled to be released on YouTube and has since been removed from the platform.